Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-10-02

VIC blh1cs hoN hDOut tDothabSct tRDC
lais, Marlowe, and Burns2 He pointl
to "the deep damnation Of his taking
of, three days drinking bout (Which
information, by the way, must be CT
pher revelation), as evidence agains'
his authorship. Can he have read o.
that son of Phillip who conquered the
world and died similar death at the
age Of thirty-three or OF the before
mentioned Marlowe, who at twenty
two immortalized himself, and al
Twenty-Five was stabbed to deaf
in drunken fight over q disrep
utable woman? Cannot he learn from
the "total depravity of his own Ba
con that immortality and great genius
are not incompatible?
Shakespeare did not educate his
daughters, and hence could not have
written the plays he argues. Miltor
wrote 4" Paradise Lost" ut is said and
raised his three daughters in ignorance
and drudgery.
He notes that in his last will our poet
mentions no books whatever. and thai
many other authors have in theirs, and
mentions among the latter class Robert
Parton; and then, as if fearful OIL
having proved too much. hastens tc
declare that Bacon wrote the " Anato
my of Melancholy"
Who wrote "Gargantuo and Panta
pruel?" The will of the reputed au.
thor, written 10y his own hand, men.
tions no books, but runs as follows
81 have nothing; ] owe much-thC
rest | give to the poor"
The will of Lord Bacon, by the way,
contains this rather remarkable pas
sage: "My name and memory l leave
TO foreign nations-and to my own
country after some time is passed
over+" Why was this?" Because he
had prepared the cryptogram and writ
ten the plays, his latest defer would
no doubt reply. To all of which, ex.
cept the last clause, we may he forced
to assent when the preliminary adver-
Using is completed and the book itself
appears.
But suppose that the edition of 1923
does contain cipher in which Francis
Bacon claimed to have written tine plays
Of William Shakespeare, what does it
prove ? That he wrote the plays No ;
rather that he was a greater, brighter,
more daring and far-seeing knave than
the world has hitherto thought posi-
BILE.
Mr.. Donnelly, it appears, notes that
when Bacon became prosperous the
plays ceased. In this assertion there
is no force whatever, unless he wrote
for money, which the discoverer of the
cipher was at great pains to convince
rs be did not. Has it not occurred to
him that Shakespeare became what was
accounted rich before the close of the
sixteenth century, and that he had
houses, and land, and money to dispose
of in his will, while, on the other hand,
Bacon departed this life in debt to the
extent of 1000? Which had the
greater need of a copyright?
is it not evident that, whatever "po-
litical reasons" might have existed to
prevent Bacon from claiming the au-
thorship of the plays in question during
the life of Shakespeare, they had entirely
vanished before 1923? Though in deep
disgrace as a self-c0nvicied "boodler. Z"
he received a royal pension and enjoyed
the favor Of the king, who. it is well
known, greatly admired the plays.
Bis thirSt for fame has not been sur-
passed by any who has lived. He saw
more clearly than any man in England
the glory which awaited the author Of
"Shylock and the Moor" and would
have graspod the tempting prize had it
been within his reach. His record
shows that he was dcbased enough to
have done it, but "Sweet VIII" had
been but seven years dead, and the
story that he was the author he well
knew would not pass current while Ben
Jonson and Michael Drayton, accord
ing to the cipher history, the compan-
ions in the last drinking-bout Of him
whom the former at least loved next
survived to nail the lie.
So well known were Shakespeare and
his works that Bacon, while reviewing
the plays word by word, and even, it
appears, letter by letter, as he Intervene
the cryptogram, did not dare remove
the blots and blemishes, which later on,
as he must have foreseen, would rise
up as arguments against his monstrous
claim. He left the lion where he found
him and did not move Bohemia back
from the sea.
And so, it appears, he deferred his
triumph to a far-oif time aud n then
newly discovered land, with mingled
acuteness and audacity constructed the
great cryptogram, and modestly be-
queathed his name and memory to for
cign nations and to his own country
after some time had passed over.